On May 15, 2021, the Tianwen-1 probe,     1     (consist) of an orbiter, a lander, and a rover, touched down at its pre-selected landing area in Utopia Planitia, a vast Martian plain, marking the first time China     2     (land) a probe on the planet. The orbiter and rover have completed the targeted scientific exploration missions and have acquired 1,480 GB     3     raw scientific data.

Chinese researchers have conducted a     4     (comprehend) study of typical landforms at the landing area. Through camera images and spectral data, researchers found water-bearing minerals in plate-like hard crust rocks near the landing area,     5     proved that there had been a lot of liquid water activities in the landing area since 1 billion years ago.

“    6     liquid water activity has been found, we believe that there may have been some suitable climate conditions for the origin of life or the     7     (exist) of such conditions in the past billion years on Mars,” Liu Yang, a researcher at the National Space Science Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), told CCTV.

These new results strongly support the assumption     8     there was once an ocean on Mars’ Utopia Planitia and also     9     (rich) human scientific understanding of the geological evolution and environmental changes on Mars.

“The fact that the Tianwen-1 gives Chinese scientists first-hand data means that we can most fundamentally analyze our scientific story     10     (base) on the raw data,” said Pan Yongxin, Tianwen-1 mission science applications chief scientist.

On an early August morning, craftsman Zhang Xi drove his car quickly along a winding mountain road in Longquan, Zhejiang province,    1    (hope) to reach his destination—a century-old kiln (窑) —as soon as possible,    2    hundreds of pieces of pottery (陶器) that had been given their final celadon glaze (青釉) were finally ready.

The 51-year-old craftsman     3     (use) the old kiln, which is located on a mountain near Xitou village, for many years. Every time he removes his     4     (create) from the kiln, seeing them in their finished celadon color remains as exciting and nerve-jangling as ever.

“It’s like opening blind boxes. The same formula of glaze     5     (apply) to different vases can look     6     (total) different on each one,” says Zhang.

Their colors usually fall in the spectrum (色谱) between lavender gray and plum green. However, sometimes they end up being brown or yellow. All these colors depend on temperature changes during the two-day firing,     7     process described by local craftsmen     8     “a song of clay and fire”. The     9    (tradition) firing technique of Longquan celadon pottery, which dates back further than 1,600 years,     10    (include) on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity List in 2009.

Cheering, dancing and singing, local people and tourists gathered around the fire during the Torch Festival of the Yi People in Bijie’s Hezhang county, Guizhou, on Aug 12. The festival was listed     1    a national intangible cultural heritage in 2011.

Though there are many     2    (describe) of the origin of the festival, it mostly relates to the natural worship of fire. For the early Yi people who lived in high-altitude-mountainous-areas, fire     3    (be) essential to light, warm, and cook food. There was     4    old practice: Before bringing animal meat into the home, a small fire must first be lit outside the door and the meat should     5    (smoke) on the fire to drive away filth. That’s     6    the Yi people have a proverb that says, “Everything you eat must ‘see’ fire.” In farming, they used to light     7    (pile) of branches and leaves and bury them in the ground later,     8    (use) them to fertilize the land.

The Yi people used to celebrate the festival as a way to pray for a good harvest and to drive away evil from their home and farmland. Today, it has become a     9    (society) event, through     10    the Yi people not only share their joy and thanks for their good life, but also get more people to understand their lifestyle and traditions.

On a recent Sunday afternoon, 15 young people lay comfortably on colorful carpets and throw pillows arranged in    1    circle. Their eyes were closed, some with their legs spread forward and    2    curled up, looking as if they were asleep.

Kong Yi sat cross-legged before them, using a special stick to hit lightly metal bowls in front of her, making a sound    3    reverberated(回荡)long inside the quiet room. Following Kong’s    4    (instruction), they went in for a two-hour sound treating and meditation(冥想)course. Listening to the slowly disappearing sounds of age-old musical instruments such as singing bowls and gongs, the members reached a deeper center and a semi-conscious(半意识)state.

After, they were guided into supposing that they    5    (talk) to a wise man dressed in white, during which they could ask questions and get answers from the wise man in half an hour. In the final part, they were pulled    6    (share) their heart conversations with other members. “In that class, many people asked the meaning of life in the end    7    everyone gave different answers from the wise man —     8    (actual) themselves, ” said Kong, who runs a work room offering treating courses connected with art forms    9    painting, music and dance.

Such spiritual, meditative experiences that can lower stress and worry have become the    10    (late) choice for the country’s stressed-out younger generation looking for relaxation and heart exploration.

Nature inspired us to figure out ways to solve the problems we faced. Birds inspired us to fly, beavers gave us ideas on how to build dams (大坝) and even tiny white ants demonstrated building ideas that we could use. By means of     1    (study) the workings of wildlife, we've come up     2     some pretty brilliant inventions. Here' re some examples to inspire students to explore their own ideas.

Bats (蝙蝠) can use     3    (they) mouths and ears to identify high-frequency sound waves, allowing them to avoid barriers and catch insects in the air. They do this by making sounds     4     can be reflected off a surface in a process     5    (call) echolocation. It is no big surprise that researchers are working on ways that poor-sighted people can use a system like echolocation.

Spider (蜘蛛) silk is one of the strongest materials in nature, believed to be five times     6    (strong) than steel. But unlike steel, spider silk is both flexible     7     lightweight. Scientists recently created a new type of medical tape based on the features of spider silk.

Even plants can inspire invention.     8     electrical engineer named George de Mestral noticed that burrs from burdockplants (牛蒡植物的芒刺) stuck fast to his unfortunate hunting dog. From that bit of inspiration, he invented Velcro, one of the most     9    (wide) used fastening systems in human history.

Students should     10    (encourage) to study the characteristics of a plant or animal and see what inventions or ideas they can design.

How can I describe the wonder I felt the first time I saw my favorite painting, George Seurat’s A Sunday on La Grande Jatte? I     1    (admire) the work for years in art books, but I had never thought I would see the actual painting,     2     was housed far from where I lived.

The first thing that struck me as I     3    (enter) the room where the painting was displayed was the size of the work. It was huge! It covered a large part of     4     even larger wall. The painting was painted with dots, a technique     5    (call) pointillism. To create such a huge painting     6    (use) this technique seemed an almost impossible task. Seurat had done it, though, and had made it look easy!

What’s more impressive, however, was the     7    (beautiful) of the painting. Viewed from a distance, the colors looked soft and gentle, describing the happy and     8    (peace) mood of a summer day in the park.

When I approached the painting, though, its colors exploded into many more colors, showing the artist’s skill in combining colors     9    (create) a mood. Even the parts of the painting that appeared white from a distance were lively and had many different colors when viewed up close. I sat and stared     10     the painting in wonder for a good part of the afternoon.

The Qingming Scroll,     1     (paint) by Zhang Zeduan in the 12th century, is     2     (common) believed to have described Bianjing (present-day Kaifeng), the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty. Currently, it     3     (house)in the Palace Museum in Beijing.

The scroll     4     (consist) of three main sections, which present life near and in Bianjing. It also displays a remarkable mastery of perspective. Besides, Zhang’s precise brushwork is perhaps the most     5     (impress). The painting shows     6     enormous amount of detail. As a result, the Qingming Scroll provides a comprehensive look at life then,     7     appears peaceful and cheerful. However, some critics suggest the painting actually exposes serious political and social     8     (problem) during the Northern Song Dynasty, which was     9     decline by this stage.

The value of the painting is down to many aspects,     10     (include) its great scale, artistic quality and its representation of daily life. Though it is not often displayed to the public, the public continue to be enthusiastic about it.